Last August, a fire ripped through 10 acres of grass on either side of California’s I-280 near Redwood City. Traffic backed up as firefighters extinguished the blaze, and California Highway Patrol officers directed drivers to turn around and travel the wrong way to exit the freeway.
Some of those drivers encountered a new obstacle: a Waymo Robotaxi.
Footage of the incident shows the Waymo AV tried to pass stopped traffic by traveling on the shoulder, only to wind up reversing away from the oncoming wrong-way cars, before stopping altogether.
The robotaxi wouldn’t budge, despite efforts from the company’s remote assistance team. So, Waymo turned to a resource that has become a reliable problem solver and called 911.
“Highway patrol turned everyone around, but unfortunately our car is not able to turn around,” one of Waymo’s remote assistance workers told an area 911 dispatcher, according to a recording obtained by TechCrunch in a public records request. The employee wanted officers on the scene to drive the robotaxi away, and to arrange transportation for the passenger inside.
Roughly 30 minutes after Waymo called 911, a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer got behind the wheel and drove the robotaxi to a park-and-ride lot near the highway, a CHP incident report obtained by TechCrunch shows. From there, it was driven away by one of Waymo’s “roadside assistance” workers, the company told TechCrunch.
The Redwood City incident could be viewed as an edge case, an inevitable, yet mildly embarrassing blip in Waymo’s rapidly expanding robotaxi service network.
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But this was not an isolated incident. Waymo has relied on taxpayer-funded first responders to navigate its vehicles when they encounter issues, despite the existence of th …